How do you condense forty albums and two hundred television episodes of fantastic rides into a one-and-twenty-hour film? The challenge was great for the director Xavier Giacometti, who had already adapted the adventures of Yakari on television. It is partly raised. The animated film is not the strict adaptation of a particular volume. “This is an original origin story , incorporating elements of the very first album, which it significantly enriches , ” underlines Christophe Narbonne of Première.
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Xavier Giacometti has chosen to develop Yakari's secrets, from the discovery of his animal mascot, Grand Aigle, revealing his power to communicate with animals, to his meeting with Petit Tonnerre, an elusive black mustang. The intrepid horse will become the faithful adventure companion of the “big little Indian”, the two beings learning to tame each other. Christophe Narbonne also thinks of Dragons while admiring the relationship that unites them. The film thus narrates a "pretty initiatory adventure which deals with our relationship with nature, courage and friendship", summarizes Lucie Vidal in La Voix du Nord.
The film is faithful to the comics and the series
This first film adaptation of Yakari is respectful of the original work according to Lucie Vidal: " Mythical scenes are thus preserved for the fans, as well as magnificent sequence shots in the North American plains."
" Remarkable and exotic, this animated film full of pretty messages remains faithful as much to the spirit of the comics as of the series, while enriching its graphics: the children will love" , estimates Renaud Baronian of the Parisian .
The technical aspect of the film brings a plus to this story already well known to children and parents. “Faithful to the original graphic universe, the animation appeals with its modern blend of 2D landscapes and 3D heroes,” underlines Nicolas Didier from Télérama .
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But the film is perhaps too faithful, precisely. Le Monde regrets that it "hardly stands out" from previous adaptations, "quietly assuming its sympathetic disuse" .
A predictable green learning story
Nicolas Didier, TéléramaThe contemporary look that we transpose to this mythical character also accentuates the “beneficent” dimension of the film. In Télérama , Nicolas Didier sees the scenario as a “predictable green learning story” . And Closer describes the little Sioux as a “benevolent ecological hero before his time” .
The little Indian, far from being "has been", is therefore a childhood friend that parents will happily rediscover alongside their children, discovering the mythical universe of the American West.